IBADAN, Nigeria – Nigeria postponed its National Assembly elections Saturday as ballots and tally sheets remained missing from polling places throughout the nation, a worrying sign as the oil-rich nation faces a month of crucial polls.
Election chief Attahiru Jega told voters in a nationwide radio address that the country faced "an emergency" and extraordinary measures needed to be taken to ensure a free and fair election. He said polls are rescheduled for Monday.
He said election officials would come to the country's roughly 120,000 polling stations Monday to carry out the vote for the country's federal legislature.
Jega did not address whether the delay would affect the country's planned presidential and local elections.
"There was nothing we could do to prevent this from happening," Jega said.
Saturday's election was to decide who should occupy seats in the country's National Assembly, positions worth more than $1 million in salaries and perks. It also was the true test for Nigeria's electoral commission to prove it could overcome the nation's history of flawed polls.
In Ibadan, a city about 90 miles (150 kilometers) inland from Nigeria's commercial capital of Lagos, police stopped all vehicles from moving. Locals gathered around polling stations waiting to vote, some already with ink on their fingers ready to cast their ballots.
Local election officials at one polling place only learned of the delay after being informed by foreign journalists.
"We feel very bad," said Mufutau Oreagba, 54. "We people are determined to do our civic right."
However, questions remain over how that will be carried out in an election already marred by problems during its registration drive. Oreagba held up his voter identification card as he spoke, saying his name wasn't included on the roster at his polling place. Some said the list was missing several hundred people.
Safety also remains a concern. Nigeria shut its land borders Friday night, intending to reopen them Sunday morning. It wasn't immediately clear what affect the election delay would have.
Problems began to surface soon after polls opened.
In the northern state of Gombe, officials postponed elections after a "mix-up of ballot papers," said election spokesman Mukhtari Gidado. The announcement led to a breakout of violence in the southern part of the state capital where police used tear gas to disperse the crowd and arrested one suspect.
Polls in Abuja, the seat of Nigeria's government, were canceled due to a shortage of ballot papers. And in the central Nigerian state of Kwara, a shortage of ballot papers led officials there to announce a cancellation.
Local politicians in Ibadan have encouraged running street battles over recent weeks, but the streets remained mostly calm as the announcement filtered through the city. Earlier in the day, a group of young men marched through the street, holding beer and liquor bottles. One youth shouted in the local Yoruba language: "If anyone plays around, I will kill them."
Further up the road, a group of soldiers had gathered around a mounted machine gun set up in a traffic roundabout.
"Waste of time. Just put it right there," Owolabiayodeji Oluwaseun, 28, told a journalist taking notes after the delay was announced. "A waste of time."
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Associated Press writers Bashir Adigun in Abuja, Nigeria; Saadatu Muhammad Awak in Gombe, Nigeria and Lekan Oyekanmi and Yinka Ibukun in Lagos, Nigeria contributed to this report.
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